This invention relates to two-wheeled vehicles, more particularly, to bicycles and scooters.
In bicycles, during travel, the user is positioned on a bicycle seat; the feet are generally continuously off the ground and, for propulsion, tread on a pair of pedals transmitting a torque to one of the wheels. A certain degree of acquired balancing skill is needed to maintain the vehicle in upright equilibrium.
In scooters the user stands on a low horizontal platform of the vehicle, grasps the handle bar for steering and, for propulsion, intermittently pushes the scooter forward with one foot performing a quasi-running motion on the ground while the other foot rests on the platform. Because the user's foot can make easy and immediate contact with the ground to provide a three point (and thus stable) support on the ground or to get off the vehicle altogether, and further because of the extremely low-lying center of gravity, particularly during use, a scooter requires a much lower degree of balancing skill than a bicycle and therefore, particularly children who are being introduced to two-wheeled vehicles, find more confidence and safety in using scooters first.
A transition from the use of a scooter to the use of a bicycle has traditionally involved two entirely different vehicles, particularly because the accommodation of the user, the method of propulsion as well as structural and stability requirements for the two types of vehicles have been significantly different and often inconsistent with one another.
It is known in the prior art to provide a basic two-wheeled vehicle construction which, by substantial userperformed conversions may be utilized either as a bicycle or as a scooter. Such a construction is disclosed, for example, in United Kingdom Patent No. 226,362, according to which a conversion from bicycle to scooter involves the removal of the entire propulsion mechanism, that is, the bracket shell, the crank, the sprocket wheel and the chain as well as the entire seat structure such as seat post, seat tube and seat stays and the installation of a low platform on a bottom horizontal frame tube. The permanent parts for use in both modes (bicycle or scooter) are only the front wheel-and-steering assembly, the generally horizontal, low lying tubes constituting the frame and the rear wheel. This prior art construction does not provide the possibility for the user to utilize the two-wheeled vehicle at will in an alternating fashion since this prior art vehicle cannot be a bicycle and a scooter at the same time.